Diner - 1982 (dir. Barry Levinson)

Micky says....

This film is opens on Christmas night 1959 and ends on New Years Eve, which is exactly the holidays when we chose to watch it (except in 2009/10, obviously...). It has a pretty all-star cast, as you can see on the poster above, but at the time it was made these actors were all unknowns. And the acting is pretty great, which is probably a big reason why many of them went on to success.

The film is OK, more enjoyable than the recently viewed Bull Durham, but again not anything to get too excited about. A group of six 20 something guys in Baltimore hang out at a Diner a whole bunch, and one of their number is getting married on New Year's Eve - given that she passes a 'football quiz' given to her by her husband beforehand. The diner itself is awesome, and right now I have a big craving for chips with gravy, the meal of choice quite often for them. Seeing all those delicous gravy-doused chips makes you realise just how much more aware we are these days of the food we choose to eat. But I ask, why does it have to taste so good if it is so bad for you? So unfair.

There is pretty much a different plot going on for each of the characters, often focused on the ideas and anxieties associated with 'settling down', getting married or getting a steady job, though not all plots are fully resolved. Kevin Bacon's character Fenwick is at the start a bit of a cheeky roustabout, and I don't really remember much of a plot progression for him, though we see less of his antics as the film goes on. There are definitely some classic moments, such as Boogie's (Mickey Rourke) penis in a box of popcorn, and the whole idea of the football quiz that Eddie (Steve Guttenberg) forces upon his future wife and the fact that she must achieve at least 65 points for the marriage to go ahead. I got a bit lost sometimes with all the characters and their unique nuances, and I don't think many of the main characters are fully able to develop within the time available. I think the dominant character and therefore most fully rounded is Boogie, who has several interesting moments with several different women, as well as getting into trouble with a bookie, working as a hairdresser and studying to be a lawyer. None of the other characters have quite as much depth.

This is an OK to pretty good film, though perhaps not as deserving of the two page spread it has attained in '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die' as something else (most films receive only 1/2 or one full page in the book so when they get a two pager you hope it'll be a gooden!). However having now written about it, I do think it was worthwhile viewing, if only for the great diner, the swing dancing, and great performances.


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Yo, Mickey Rourke - what happened to your face? I think I've realised why I didn't engage with this film quite as much as whoever chose to put it in '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die', and its because for me there were too many characters - although we were given glimpses into all of their lives, many of them just came off as archetypes in search of detail. Whilst the performances were uniformly good, some characters were more developed than others merely because they were given more screen time. You had the pretty boy/ladies man (Mickey Rourke), the rascally rapscallion (Kevin Bacon), the married guy who mourns his independence (Daniel Stern), the cocky young buck about to be wed - on his own terms (Steve Guttenberg in a surprisingly not shit performance), the guy who's moved away (Tim Daly) and the funny guy (Paul Riser).

Of all these characters, we only really get to know two or three particularly well. Rourke is undoubtedly the star of the film - he's the ladies man with two or three broads on the go at one time - and he's great in this, proving just how much charisma and ability he had as a young actor (before his face melted). His scenes with Ellen Barkin are fantastic - and she's great too. In fact, I think we get know her character better than a lot of the other dudes. Take Paul Riser for example - he's really just there to crack jokes. We learn nothing about him except for the splashes of intellect he displays when rattling off observational comedy bits or asking Daniel Stern for a lift by not asking him - actually he kind of just comes across as 'neurotic Jewish guy', which is a bit problematic and a waste. I also wanted more insight into Tim Daly's character - the guy who'd moved away but still had a girlfriend back home - but the other characters were all so obsessed about their own lives that he never had the opportunity to really tell us what was going on for him, so instead we get some awkward moments between him and his girlfriend talking "around" their problems and never really getting to the crux of what's going on. I guess that's meant to represent the fact that she just doesn't want a long-distance relationship anymore, but it was handled in a pretty obtuse manner that, although I get it, didn't quite work.

Having said all this, Diner certainly wasn't a bad film - there are some great performances and some good laughs to be had. The production design was interesting in that it didn't overstate the nostalgic elements of the whole "Hey there baby boomers - remember when we were young - back in the 50s!" vibe, and I guess by setting it in Baltimore you're given less iconic backdrops upon which the play up the nostalgic elements, which I actually appreciated - because it's set during the middle of winter and mostly at night it's actually quite a dark film visually. Overall though, I almost wish they'd either extended the running time to include more detail about each character, or trimmed a couple of them and focussed on a few.

Bull Durham - 1988 (dir. Ron Shelton)

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Because I'm not really into sport I don't usually get too excited by sports movies. I think the genre can be done well (Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday is one I can think of off the top of my head), but generally sports culture bores me so I steer clear of films about it. But we were heading down to my parents place post-Christmas and wanted a few films we could watch with the family that weren't too arty or pretentious, so we thought we'd kill two birds with one stone and get some 1001 action in there. That was pretty much the reason for choosing to watch this film.

It was OK, and I mean just OK - I certainly don't think this film deserves to be listed as one of the 1001 movies you must see before you die - if you die before you see this film don't sweat it hey, cause it's really not that great. But I'll do my best at trying to describe what I did actually like about it. I guess first off would be Tim Robbins - he does a really good job of playing a naive, immature douche - he imbues the character of "Nuke" LaLoosh the cocky young pitcher with a sense of confused pathos, but at other times is really funny, and although the character is pretty much an ass, Robbins makes you like him. Also, although it is really naff and dated, the saxophone score that carries the last ten minutes of the film was pretty affecting in an 80s high-camp sort of way - there were shots of the town as Kevin Costner shuffles around listlessly, and for me - despite its dated aesthetic - it tapped into a kind of small-town nostalgia that rung true. Also, I really enjoyed Robert Wuhl as Larry, the fast-talking assistant coach - he had a great air of genuine enthusiasm both for the game and for the players on his team and he had a few great lines that he delivered with relish.

OK, here are the things I didn't like. First off I have to say that I pretty much despise Kevin Costner - he always plays the smug everyman with a tough exterior and a romantic heart beating triumphantly underneath, and I find him pretty obnoxious. His character here, "Crash" Davis is no exception, and he's got some absolutely preposterous lines that prove just how vain Costner was to consistently play smouldering, supposedly "deep" or "complex" tortured souls and think that audiences weren't catching on. The most ridiculous moment comes when Susan Sarandon's character Annie Savoy asks him what he believes in. This is what he says:

"Well, I believe in the soul, the cock, the pussy, the small of a woman's back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days."

Fuck you, Kevin Costner. Which brings me to the dialogue in general. Aside from a few funny and perceptive lines, I found most of it pretty terrible. Here's a prime example, courtesy once again from Mr. Costner: "You got a gift. When you were a baby, the Gods reached down and turned your right arm into a thunderbolt. You got a Hall-of-Fame arm, but you're pissing it away." The film thinks its being profound whilst simultaneously pushing these corny lines down your throat, and it gets pretty tired after a while. Susan Sarandon was pretty good I guess, although I do get tired of her stock-in-trade wise Southern Belle with bedroom eyes , and her character Annie was a contradictory woman of culture and substance whilst also being a massive slut, which was problematic.

All up I didn't particularly enjoy Bull Durham - it offered me a few laughs but not a lot else.


Micky says...

The most memorable aspect of Bull Durham is what can only be described as 'hilarious doily sex scene', which, unfortunately it looks like you will have to watch the film to see because my google search has not produced any suitable pictures. Anyway it is near the end of the film so you could always rent it and fast foward to the end to see it if you're that keen. Accompanied by sleazy saxophone, as the supposed 'climax' of the film it is very laughable and very dated in a bad way (actually it is probably more likely the denoument but I just wanted to make a clever pun!). I don't think the scene is bad just be because it so unforgivingly 80s, because the sex scene on the train in Risky Business is pretty awesome, and I also remember the sex scene is St Elmo's Fire in the shower being good too, and they are both very 80s films. I feel a little bit mean for dissing out on Susan Sarandon's sex scene work, because surely this is when an actor is at their most vulnerable, but it's not really her fault. Production design, sound design, camerawork and direction are all to blame for the embarrasment that is this scene.

Ok, what else to say about this film? Hmmm...if you like baseball this is a good Rom Com option for you and your gal/guy. Because how many other baseball Rom Coms are there? However may I just point out something about this film. The character of Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon) supposedly has an amazing ability for helping one Durham Bull's player to become successful by chosing him to be her boyfriend for the season. This is essentially the whole crux of the film. But almost everything we see of her 'helping' them is completely lame and not particularly effective. There are not enough strong moments for the character to demonstrate why she has this amazing ability, made worse by scenes of her instructing them how to swing a bat. It's just not convincing.

I suppose one of the messages this film is trying to get across when it's not just telling a story about trying to be a successful sportsman, is 'know when to give up'. This adds a bit of a downer element to the film as it nears its end, trying for a bit of a heartfelt ending. Enter the 'doily sex scene', and I was laughing too much too care about these characters feeling a little sorry for themselves.

I'm not convinced that this film is one of the 1001 movies I must see before I die, and since the book uses the 'sizzling sex scenes' as one of very few justifications for seeing it, I would be very surprised if Bull Durham has made it into the more recent rewrite of the book - if you have it please check and let me know! At the same time I also don't think the film deserves to disappear into relative obscurity, I'm not saying rush out and hire it now, but perhaps if you've already been wandering the eisles of your local video store for 45 minutes and Bull Durham is there for the bargain weekly price of $1, then why not give it a go! (Especially for the doily sex scene).